Nigerian lawmaker alleges racism in Goa

Villages in Goa have started a racist campaign against Nigerians, a lawmaker in Nigeria's House of Representatives said, according to a report in a leading Nigerian newspaper Thursday.

The statement, made a day ago, comes even as the lower house of the Nigerian parliament resolved to mandate its committees on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora to probe the Nigerian's murder and "illegal incarceration of 53 others" in Goan prisons, The Nigerian Tribune said.

The resolution warned of a backlash against Indians in Nigeria. The Tribune also said that lawmaker Yusuf Ayo Tajudeen came down heavily on Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for issuing a "a directive to the police to commence clampdown and possible deportation of Nigerians".

The resolution, passed unanimously in the 360-member house, according to the newspaper, was moved by Tajudeen and titled "gruesome murder of a Nigerian and illegal incarceration of 53 Nigerians in India".

A Nigerian mob had smashed a police vehicle, assaulted policemen and blocked a national highway Oct 31. They were protesting the murder of their compatriot by a drug mafia and demanding the presence of a consular official at the postmortem. In response, the Goa government enforced a crackdown on all foreigners, sparking a diplomatic row, after a Nigerian consul accused the state police of harassment of Nigerians.

Two villages namely Parra and Siolim have passed resolutions banning Nigerians students and Nigerians from hiring rooms in their village jurisdictions.